Wet Hot American Summer
by WhyTFNot
Summary: Godric's Hollow, the summer camp run by Euphemia and Fleamont Potter, is the setting for fun, mischief, and just maybe love.
1. Chapter 1

Sirius's hands gripped the handlebars of his motorcycle, as he leaned forward into the rushing wind. The earbuds tucked under his helmet were playing 'Homeward Bound,' Simon and Garfunkel crooning in his ear as the wind flipped the ends of his hair in time with the guitar riffs.

 _Home where my thought's escaping, Home where my music's playing…_

He sped up, whispering encouragement to his bike as he eased her around a turn. She wasn't what you would call 'finished' but she could run, so his perpetual adjustments had been put on hold for the summer. He pulled up beside a car, looking over through the window as he drew even with the front headlights. A wide eyed kid stared at him from the back seat. He smiled and waved as he pulled ahead, merging in front of them.

 _And every stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be, Homeward bound, I wish I was, Homeward bound…_

The trees were rushing past him, the faint scent of apples on the wind as he passed an apple orchard he and James had frequented more times than they could count. The sun was still rising, but he felt more awake than he had in weeks. Each breath felt like it held too much air, like inhaling would lift him up and carry him away.

 _Home where my love lies waiting, Silently for me. Silently for me…_

The guitar drifted off as Sirius pulled off the highway onto a dirt road, his smile widening with each bump in the road. He sped past the weathered sign with "Godric's Hollow' handpainted in capital letters, a warm feeling in his chest as he rounded the familiar corners. He whipped his motorcycle around into a patch of dirt, looking up at the white ranch style house and the boy waving, now running down the porch steps to greet him. He was home.

Sirius pulled off his motorcycle helmet and unzipped his windbreaker only to have his arms pinned to his side in a hug. "James," he laughed, "You're crushing me."

"Six months. It's been six fucking months." James Potter pulled back, taking in the sight of his best friend. "God damn you need a haircut," He said as he ruffled his hand through Sirius's roots.

"Hey, no touching." Sirius batted his hand away, draping his arm over James's shoulder as they walked up to the big house, James's parents waiting for them together by the door. Sirius got a hug from each of them as they went inside for breakfast.

"The new hires should be here around noon, so I'll need you boys to help me set up some training activities before they get here," Mrs. Potter explained, as she scooped eggs on to Sirius's already full plate.

"And I'll be out seeing if I can get that damn bus to run before the campers get here," Mr. Potter said, looking out the window at the faded yellow school bus in the backyard, before turning back to Sirius to say, "If you got that motorcycle to run, think you could help me with this?"

"Sure!" Sirius said, his mouth full of eggs and his hand reaching for another pancake. "I think I have some tools in the back of my bike."

Mrs. Potter headed up to the front desk after breakfast, to finalize reservations for the first week of camp and to start setting up for the new girl. They had been running the summer camp out of their house since James was in diapers. And with Sirius living only a motorcycle's drive away, he and James had been helping since high school.

After scarfing down a few more pancakes, James and Sirius went around back to start rigging zip line harnesses.

"I can't believe you're ditching me for ziplining this year," Sirius said as he strung a carabiner through the front loop of a harness. This was his third year officially working at Godric's Hollow summer camp, and for the past two years, he and James had been white water rafting instructors.

"Eh, they were short one this year, so I figured it wouldn't hurt." James smiled as he tugged on a harness strap, loosening it. "Besides, this way you have a shot at being the coolest water counselor, ya know, with your biggest competition removed."

"Oh, shove off."

They finished the rest of the harnesses, simultaneously catching each other up on their lives. Inseparable through high school, they had been going to different colleges for two years, and this was the first time they had seen each other since last Christmas break.

"Anything to declare in the love life department?"

"Nuns get more action than me, I'm afraid." Sirius smiled. Except for a few computer science majors here and there his love life was rather dry.

"Mm, just about the same over here. But," James elbowed Sirius in the side, "With all these new hires, hormones flying, ya never know…"

"Oh please. You know nothing ever happens here."

"Always so cynical."

Sirius threw the last harness on the pile. "You're ridiculous. You know that right?"

"Sirius! I need a hand!" Mr. Potter, on his back under the schoolbus, was calling to him from across the yard. Sirius gave James another playful shove before heading over to help, already asking about carburetors, and spark plugs, and oil levels. With his back turned to the driveway, and his hands wrist deep in an engine, he didn't notice the new hires start to trickle in.

Dorcas Meadowes arrived first, a tall girl with dark brown hair cropped above her shoulders. She chatted happily with James as his mother showed her the ropes at the front desk where she would be working.

Lily Evans and Peter Pettigrew arrived next, having driven together. Lily, a rafting instructor, and Peter, a zipline guide were given their respective information packets by James, and then shown their cabins and told team training would begin in about thirty minutes.

Marlene McKinnon, another rafting instructor, sped up the driveway blasting music through her open windows. She screamed as she got out of the car, running over to hug Lily, her bright voice floating across the camp ground as she said hello.

And finally, Remus Lupin, the last zipline guide, pulled in three minutes before training was supposed to start, accepting his packet from James and introducing himself to everyone there.

James had them all gathered in the front yard, before he realized that they were missing someone. "SIRIUS!"

Sirius whipped his head around, wiping a greasy hand across his forehead, unknowingly leaving a smudge. "COMING!" He bent down under the bus. "I gotta go help with training. The engine looks ok though, I think you might have to check the ignition switch," He said to Mr. Potter before running off to join the group of teenagers in the yard.

Mr. Potter sighed. "Why didn't I think of that…"

Watching the other boy run across the lawn, Remus Lupin couldn't stop himself from raising an eyebrow. In basketball shorts and a grease stained fleetwood mac t shirt, the other boy did something to his stomach that he couldn't explain.

"Hey!" Sirius grinned at the group, flicking a hair tie off his wrist and tying his hair up in a bun.

Well shit, Remus thought, that doesn't help.

James babbled on about what they were going to do that day, mostly practice harness rigging, go over river safety, maybe run the course a few times, "but most importantly, ICEBREAKERS!"

And Remus, suddenly paying attention again, had to fight the urge to groan. The boy next to him whispered, "Can I just quit now?"

"We'll start." The boy in the fleetwood mac t shirt said. "We're gonna play two truths and a lie because it's easy. I'm going to say my name, then three things about myself and you have to figure out which one is the lie. Got it?"

The group before him nodded.

"Ok. My name's Sirius Black, I drive a motorcycle, I'm scared of heights, and," He pointed at James. "We're brothers."

Marlene spoke up first. "Well you work at a summer camp with a zipline course, so you're not scared of heights."

"Any other wagers?" Sirius shrugged, grinning, looking for the first time at the boy with the blonde curly hair staring at him. Every shook their heads.

James smiled. "Ha! Wrong. He's terrified of heights which is why he's a _rafting instructor_ and not a line guide. I'll try not to be offended you thought I was related to that." He grinned as he stuck a thumb out at Sirius, the comment earning him a punch on the arm.

"You wish we were from the same gene pool." Sirius rolled his eyes, looking away from the boy who had so suddenly caught his attention. "Anyway, it's your turn."

"Ok Ok, my name is James Potter, I'm an only child…"

The redheaded girl with them scoffed. "Obviously." she grinned.

"Wow, ok. I'm an engineering major, and my parents own this place." He crossed his arms. "Well?"

The red head spoke up again. "Well, you're definitely an only child, and you have the same last name as the owners, which you seem to have forgotten that we knew. And with that inattention to detail I'm confidently guessing that your not an engineering major?" She spoke clearly and confidently but by the tilt of her head Sirius could tell she was teasing. Maybe James would get some action this summer.

James squinted at the girl, not wanting to admit she was right. "Ha." He scoffed. "I'm the owners' nephew so…"

"No you're not." Sirius clapped him on the back, smiling at the girl. "You're right, fantastic assessment. Why don't you go next?"

The girl brushed her hair off her shoulder. "My name's Lily Evans, I'm a chemistry major, I'm _not_ an only child," she smirked at James, "and I've never heard a Fleetwood Mac song in my life." She gestured to Sirius's t shirt, making him gasp and clutch his chest.

"Please tell me that last one is a lie," Sirius begged.

"Hang on a second." James held up a finger. "I think you actually _are_ an only child. It takes one to know one."

"Mm," Lily tsked, "wrong I'm afraid." She turned to Sirius, smiling. "Of course it's a lie."

Sirius closed spotify, relieved. "Thank God."

The rest of the new hires got their turn at the ice breaker game. They learned that Marlene couldn't whistle, but she could do a standing backflip, which she proudly demonstrated for them. Peter had four pets back home, but had never been out of the country. Dorcas could type 195 words per minute, but couldn't cross her eyes. Finally they learned that Remus was an English major, and that he had never made it all the way through a horror movie.

There was something about the other boy, where Sirius found himself unable to look away, even though prolonged eye contact made his head feel as if it were about to explode.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Right, well we better start the tour, I suppose."

The next few hours involved Sirius and James explaining how to put someone in a zipline harness, how to properly fasten a life jacket, how to carry a raft, how to paddle and steer efficiently, how to switch harnesses from cable to cable.

"Here." Sirius grabbed Remus's wrist and angled it slightly up, moving the boys thumb so it rested at the base of the carabiner clip. "If you hold it like this, you can hook it on in one motion instead of two."

Remus, inexplicably feeling heat in his ears, squeezed the clip a little too hard, the metal slipping out of his hand and onto the ground.

"Oh, shit sorry."

"That's it, you're fired." Sirius laughed at the boys mortified expression. He picked the clip up off the ground. "I'm kidding, just try it again."

The tour ended and the group headed back up to the house, laughing and already feeling like they had known each other for weeks instead of hours. The Potters greeted them at the door, letting them know hamburgers were in the kitchen so help themselves. They would be out front setting up a bonfire.

Plates were made and they headed outside, food in hand to sit around the bonfire. Marlene had grabbed an armful of capri suns, and was handing them out as they all plopped down into chairs.

"Take a fucking sip babes." Mrs. Potter waited for the laughter to die down to gently remind Marlene that she wasn't allowed to use that kind of language when the campers got there tomorrow.

As their voices grew louder, the air around them grew darker, their faces illuminated only by the light of the fire. Mr. and Mrs. Potter retired to the big house early leaving the group to themselves.

"Let's try not to stay up till dawn ok?" Mrs. Potter reprimanded sleepily as she walked away. "Camp starts tomorrow."

They promised they'd go to bed soon, but nobody was tired. As a group, they made a lively bunch.

Marlene was sitting in Lily's lap, as Dorcas leaned in way too close to listen to a story she was telling, even though you could hear the bubbly girl clearly from across the yard. James was talking to Peter about school. Apparently they were each in their school's chapter of the same fraternity. Remus stood close to them, but didn't contribute anything to the conversation. He seemed content to just sip his capri sun and exist.

Sirius smiled. There was something about the image of a 19 year old boy drinking a juice box that was just always going to be funny. Doing his darndest to look nonchalant, Sirius walked over to him.

"Pacific cooler. Bold choice."

Remus looked up from his drink. "Yes, it's much more full-bodied than the…" He squinted at the pouch in Sirius's hand, "Tropical punch. It has a rounder palate, if you know what I mean."

Sirius laughed. He swirled his pouch like it was wine and not liquid sugar encased in plastic. "I didn't know I was speaking to an expert." He straightened his back and brought his shoulders down, channelling his inner wino.

Remus couldn't keep a straight face, and his mouth cracked into a smile. "Sirius, right?"

"Yeah. Remus?"

"The one and only."

"Excited about tomorrow?" Sirius asked, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

"Oh yeah." Remus said, a little sarcastic this time. "Can't wait to spend my entire summer with shrieking middle schoolers." He slurped the rest of his pacific cooler down.

"Well you also get to spend it with us." Sirius gestured to the rest of the counselors. "I mean I can guarantee that we're gonna get one or two monster kids every week, but we get weekends off to do whatever the hell we want." Sirius smiled, something that even in the dim light of the fire, made Remus feel a little shaky.

"I guess I can be a little more positive," Remus quipped, tilting his head to the side. "Also, is this a good time to let you know you have something on your face?"

"What?" Sirius's face grew hot as he remembered working on the bus earlier in the day. He rubbed his forehead, completely missing the smudge. "For fucks sake, it's been there the whole day hasn't it."

Remus laughed. "You're- you're missing, just let me get it." Moving a little bit closer, he steadied Sirius's face with one hand and used his thumb to wipe the smudge away. "See? Gone." He stepped back.

Sirius's breath caught in his throat. A hissing sound behind him made him jump.

"Chill mate," James said, "just putting the fire out."

Well past midnight, the counselors decided it was probably time to retire, so they made their way back to the cabins. The girls split off, Marlene's arm draped around Dorcas. The boys drifted off to their beds, James, always energetic, still cracking jokes.

Soon they were all in pajamas and under covers. Sirius could hear the faint chirping of crickets from outside, as he lay there with the middle of his forehead still burning.

It was going to be one hell of a summer.


	2. Chapter 2

James Potter's lips hovered a centimeter away from Sirius Black's ear. "Wake up bitch."

Sirius jumped awake, only able to see the whites of his best friends eyes in the dark light of the morning. "Jesus christ, James, what time is it."

"Keep your voice down." James grabbed Sirius's wrist, ignoring his question and dragging him out of bed. "We're making breakfast."

Sirius rolled his eyes as he glimpsed the clock next to his bed blinking 5:30.

They traipsed out of the cabin and across the front lawn, Sirius still in his bare feet, and walked up the front porch of the big house. James had explained on the way that he wanted to make the other counselors breakfast before the first day, "You know, to boost morale."

It might have been five thirty in the outside world, but inside the house it was bustling like it was noon. Mrs. Potter hardly looked up from the front computer when they walked in, simultaneously balancing a checkbook, and printing out welcome signs as she finalized another round of reservations. Mr. Potter was wiping down windows with one hand as he wiped down a counter with the other. He was wearing an apron that sprouted a feather duster from one of the pockets.

"Good morning boys."

James and Sirius stumbled into the kitchen, Sirius still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "What are we making?"

"I'm making blueberry muffins." James pulled some flour out of the pantry as he talked. "You're making sausage." His free hand pointed behind him. "They're in the fridge."

Sirius pulled out a couple packages of sausage as James started making muffins from scratch behind him. He tried not to fall asleep in the pan as he heated oil on the stove.

The kitchen was mostly silent as they worked, the faint sounds of James's parents floating in from the foyer and the occasional grunt from James. Sirius, his sleepiness inhibiting his common sense, let his thoughts drift to Remus. And Remus's hands. And Remus's thumb on his forehead.

He smiled as he pushed sausages around in a pan. It had been a while since someone had given him butterflies.

"What are you smiling about?" James asked, looking over in confusion.

"Nothing." Sirius said softly, "I just like the smell."

They finished quickly and Sirius chastised James for waking him up earlier than necessary while he picked at a muffin. First days always made him nervous. Soon the other counselors began to wander in, only because James had put big signs on the doors of both cabins that said 'breakfast in the kitchen.'

"Mmmmmm it smells amazing in here," Marlene stumbled in, t-shirt rumpled and hair wild, an equally tired looking Dorcas trailing behind her.

James stood by the table, holding two serving plates, a paisley apron tied around his waist. "Help yourself, you're going to need the energy later."

"You look like a pioneer woman," Dorcas quipped as she grabbed a muffin and sat down, choosing to take the other half of Marlene's seat instead of pick a chair of her own.

The rest of the gang filed in slowly after the two of them, the table filling up as fast as their breakfast plates, the sound of chewing punctuated only by soft 'good morning's.

Remus had picked the seat directly across from Sirius, who suddenly wasn't having any more trouble keeping his eyes open. This morning, the amateur motorcycle mechanic was wearing a faded Simon and Garfunkel t-shirt over a pair of lifeguard style swim shorts. He ruffled his hair and grinned at Remus across the table before shoving half a muffin into his mouth. Remus snorted.

"Did you lose a bet or something, where you're only allowed to wear overrated band t-shirts?" Remus asked as he put three more sausages on his plate.

"Ok, I'm going to ignore the fact that you just called Fleetwood Mac and Simon and Garfunkel overrated, and instead point out the obvious flaw in your logic."

Remus smirked. "Yeah?"

"You've only seen me wear two shirts, that just happened to be band shirts. Until I wear a third consecutive band shirt, it's not a pattern, and there _fore,_ " Sirius stabbed a sausage for emphasis, "warrants no sarcastic comment."

Remus held up his hands, face slightly flushed. "Ok, you got me. I'll just reiterate my statement tomorrow, when you wear a Queen shirt to breakfast."

Sirius swallowed his bite, making a mental note not to wear the Queen shirt he had picked out for tomorrow.

Breakfast was interrupted as James' mother stuck her head through the door. "Let's get teeth brushed, and hair combed. Campers should be here in about thirty minutes."

Plates were dumped in the sink and napkins were thrown away as they all hurriedly shuffled back to the cabins to get ready, emerging several minutes later, looking a bit more like humans.

James was standing in the driveway practicing his 'Counselor Voice' while Lily stood slightly out of sight, mocking him for Marlene and Peter's benefit. Dorcas gave Marlene a shy wave as she headed back up to the house to sit behind the front desk, blushing when Marlene blew her a kiss.

Peter and Remus were last to file out of the boys cabins, James immediately hooking each of them by the arm, grinning mischievously. "Sorry ladies," He said in Marlene, Lily, and Sirius's direction, "Try not to get too offended when the campers like us best. Ziplining is just _cooler_ than rafting." Sirius rolled his eyes at his friend's weak attempt at stirring up trouble.

"Oh we're starting a rivalry now, are we?" Lily stepped forward, arms crossed, surprising Sirius who though he would be the one returning James's stupid first day banter. "Ok I'm not one to step down from a challenge. End of the week we take a poll."

"Oh my god they haven't even gotten here yet," Remus rolled his eyes.

"Scared you'll lose already?" Sirius tried to make his question sound innocent, not flirty, already afraid his not so subtle lingering stares might frighten his day old coworker.

"Just don't want you to be too embarrassed at the end of the week." Remus smirked at him across the driveway, his expression giving Sirius more questions than answers.

Sirius's heart rate jumped as he tried to maintain the other boy's piercing eye contact.

"Oh ho ho," James grinned, rubbing his hands together. "Looks like we got ourselves a friendly little competition." A school bus started pulling up the drive behind him. "See you on the other side."

As soon as the bus rolled to a stop, things started moving at light speed. Children were shrieking, James and Lily were both battling for control over the group, Marlene was explaining the itinerary to the frazzled looking woman Sirius assumed was the chaperone, and Remus and Peter tried to make friends with a few pint sized people.

Sirius, however, felt as if the world was moving around him, a rock in his stomach weighing him down. His mind, instead of jumpstarting into the first of his camp duties, was lingering on the moment that had just ended, the eye contact that had lasted maybe a little too long. He was rooted there, wondering if he was allowed to consider this flirting, the ever constant fear that he was just projecting his own feelings lingering on the outskirts of the daydream. His mind spiralled in an endless loop of not wanting to make another boy uncomfortable, but wanting to flirt, to be playful, to lock eyes just a little longer than he was supposed to. To be a nineteen year old developing a crush.

His thoughts scattered as he felt a small hand poke him in the arm. He jumped, blinking a little, and looked down, his eyes meeting those of a 12 year old girl.

"You hadn't moved in a while." She said calmly. "Are you ok?"

Sirius had to fight back a laugh. He needed to get a hold of himself. Cute boys worked at this camp every summer, and every summer he made it to the end without spontaneously combusting. Surely he could get through one more.

"I think I'm a little sleepy." He smiled. "Why don't we go over to the other counselors and learn how to zipline?" He took her by the hand and led her back to the group, his mind clicking back into gear.

James did a thoroughly entertaining zipline demonstration, followed by an equally entertaining rafting demonstration from Lily. Once the safety instructions were all squared away, James corralled the overly eager middle schoolers into a mostly single file line and Remus and Peter helped him lead them to the zipline course, where they would spend the first morning.

This left Marlene, Lily, and Sirius a few hours to themselves as they waited for their turn at instructing. Sirius couldn't decide if the free time was a blessing or a curse, as his mind started to wander once more.

It wasn't as if this was the first crush he had ever had. There had been plenty. It was just that the more experience he had with crushing, the less he believed that it would ever end well for him. There had been the boy who looked at him with disgust in his eyes after Sirius had leaned over to kiss him during a late night study session, leaving Sirius to spend the next several weeks trying to figure out how he had misread the signs that badly. There had been the boy Sirius had shyly asked to be his boyfriend after several steamy make outs in the library, only to be laughed at as the other boy said he was only 'gay till graduation' and wasn't looking for anything serious. After that, there was the boy that Sirius had spent weekend after weekend curled up on the couch with, spending weeks overthinking every hand touch, every arm around his shoulder, every inside joke whispered in his ear, only to get all the hope he had built up shattered by a sentence that started with "My girlfriend…"

Rejection after rejection had led Sirius to assume that his feelings weren't reciprocated until his crush explicitly spelled it out for him.

And well, to date, none of his crushes ever had.

So as Sirius watched the three zipline instructors walk away, he focused on killing the few butterflies left in his stomach, convincing himself that this summer wasn't going to end with him being embarrassed and Remus unable to look him in the eye. Once the last flap of a metaphorical wing left his abdomen, he turned and smiled at Marlene and Lily, who were already planning how to make the campers like them the best.

"Alright guys, fill me in too."


End file.
